Behind the lens with the acclaimed ‘dog guy’

William Wegman, a pioneering artist known for his photography, discussed his career on Wednesday evening in a lecture sponsored by the Department of Art + Design. Photo by Brooks Canaday.

Five pieces of cotto salami lie in a white dish against a black speckled back­ground. A hairy out­stretched hand sporting a ring on its index finger reaches for a slice of the sausage.

The image, con­structed and then cap­tured by pio­neering artist William Wegman in 1970, trans­formed his appre­ci­a­tion for still pho­tog­raphy and shaped his ongoing love of pho­tographing dogs on boats, in dresses and even cov­ered in flour.

“I wanted to build some­thing that you couldn’t create through the lens,” he told roughly 300 stu­dents, fac­ulty and staff who filled Blackman Audi­to­rium on Wednesday evening for a lec­ture on his illus­trious career. The event was spon­sored by the Depart­ment of Art + Design in the Col­lege of Arts, Media and Design.

Wegman, 68, moves flu­idly among var­ious media. Over the last four decades, he has com­mis­sioned mag­a­zine shots; cre­ated tele­vi­sion seg­ments for Sesame Street and Sat­urday Night Live; and designed children’s books revealing tongue-​​in-​​cheek por­traits of town and country life.

But he will be remem­bered pri­marily for pho­tographing Weimaraners, the most famous of which he named “Man Ray” in honor of the artist and photographer.

Man Ray, Wegman explained while flip­ping through a slideshow of his work, was a “dreamy dog, one who did romantic things and took romantic pictures.”

His obses­sion with pho­tographing Weimaraners — curled up in boxes, say, or dressed like Little Red Riding Hood — grew out of an innate interest in trying some­thing that has never been done before.

“They became a black­board that you could write any­thing on,” explained Wegman, who has become known as the “dog guy.” “They had quirks that you could explore.”

Art pro­fessor Mira Cantor alluded to Wegman’s genius in a series of intro­duc­tory remarks, noting that pre­em­i­nent artists take risks and “dis­cover new truths that may not be self-​​evident.”

Wegman, she added, “con­tinues to chal­lenge and test him­self and has cre­ated some of the most impor­tant works in the his­tory of con­tem­po­rary culture.”

Nathan Felde, the newly appointed chair of the Depart­ment of Art + Design, com­pared Wegman’s art­work to post­modern lit­er­a­ture by nov­el­ists Kurt Von­negut and Italo Calvino.

Like Calvino and Von­negut, Wegman, Felde said, “embodies what it means for art to be at the center of life.”

Wegman’s series of com­po­si­tions involving Weimaraners, he added, “gives us a chance to recon­sider our­selves while looking into the infi­nite good­ness of the eyes of the dog.”

About the Writer

Jason Kornwitz, AS' 08, has called Northeastern home since 2003. In his spare time, he enjoys playing sports, watching pretentious movies, and cooking kingly breakfasts. Follow him on Twitter @jasonkornwitz.

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